Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
AXELOS CPD Scheme

What is CPD?

The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a term that describes learning activities professionals undertake to maintain and develop their abilities.

Moreover, CPD is an essential feature of your subscription and designed to support you with your professional development activities.

 How can I earn CPD?

Many different activities can count as ‘CPD’ from formal training courses to attending conferences and webinars, and even coaching others in best practice because that activity re-enforces your own knowledge.

There is a three-stage cycle you can follow easily to meet your annual points requirements.

 Step 1: Assess capability and plan learning

Assess your skills and capabilities to help you understand your development needs in order to identify the right activities and measure your progress against these.

Step 2: Acquire skills and knowledge 

Once you understand your development objectives, you can go out and undertake activities to help you meet them. Your development is about you and so you have the chance to choose the activities that are relevant to your objectives

 Step 3: Apply and evaluate

This final stage of the cycle focuses on the outcome of your activity and how it has helped you meet your development objectives. When you log your activity, you will be asked to evaluate the outcome either by providing a description of your learning or by selecting the skills you have developed.

 How do I claim my CPD?

You must register 20 points' worth of activities linked to the product you registered with each year.
If you don’t register your points in any given year then your qualification will lapse.
Regarding the CPD registration, please note that five points must come from the Professional Experience category, but the remaining 15 can be earned from activities across the Training and Qualifications, Community Participation and Self-study categories.
One point equates to one hour’s worth of effort and you can record a minimum of 30 minutes, or 0.5 points, up to a maximum of 15 hours or 15 points. For Professional Experience, to gain the five points, you will need to list five activities that you undertake within your role and that link to the skills and behaviours expected of your role.

Here below you will find the categories where you have to register your CPD:

Compulsory / Professional Experience
5 points (only) must be registered here annually

• Applying best practice in the workplace
• Coaching colleagues in relation to best practice
• Mentoring individuals or groups to support their development
• Work shadowing senior colleagues

Optional / Training
15 points Maximum registered in this category per annum

• Attending a formal training course / programme – such as provided by an ATO (Approved Training Provider)
• Achievement of another qualification from an accredited organisation e.g. AXELOS, APM, PMI
• Training can be classroom, eLearning, virtual classroom
• Corporate in-house training can apply here too

Optional / Community Participation (active or passive)
15 points Maximum per annum

• Attending professional industry events
• Contributing to community discussion forums
• Authoring industry thought leadership articles / books
• Authoring industry thought leadership blogs

Optional / Self Study
5 points Maximum per annum

• Relevant books / manuals / publications
• Journal articles, white papers, case studies
• Webcasts, podcasts, websites
• Corporate Intranet articles
• Blog posts/RSS feeds

 Register CPD to maintain certifications

You can use the Continuing Professional Development program to renew your AXELOS/PeopleCert certifications.
Candidates are required to submit at least 20 CPD points per year for three consecutive years. After that, the certificate renewal date will be extended for another three years. 

CPDs should be submitted for each Product Suite, so if you hold two or more certifications included in the same suite, you can follow the renewal procedure only once. 

CPD points must be submitted on the same date you originally passed the exam. For example, if you passed a certification exam on 30th April, the annual 20 CPD points should be submitted by 30th April each year.

Find out more information on the procedures and on the renewal of certifications.

Useful documents

• Donwload the CPD Table of Activities
• Download the complete guide to claim your CPD points